The only reason Orlando was pipped to the post was because of the long flying time of around nine hours from the UK, otherwise, its world-famous theme parks and near-constant sunshine ranked extremely favourably for child-friendly holidays.

Around eight in ten respondents said making sure a destination is child-friendly is their main priority when booking a holiday. Factors that contributed to a family-friendly holiday included nearby play areas, a good choice of food to cater for fussy eaters, and a shallow sea. Half of the parents polled said the ideal holiday destination must have nice beaches, and 28% said kids’ swimming pools are essential.

The study also found that the ideal holiday would last an average of 10 days, and involve less than five hours of travelling time, making many of theEuropean destinations ideal for family breaks.

Flight comparison website, Skyscanner, has listed some of the cheapest places to fly for under £50 for some much needed autumn sunshine. Luckily for you, Villaseek has plenty of great holiday villas in 4 of the 7 listed destinations!

El Capistrano Village

Malaga, from £40. With an average high temperature of 24C and 8 hours of daily sunshine, Malaga on the Costa del Sol is one of the best bets for autumn sunshine in Europe.

Accommodating between 2 and 9 people and from £165 per week this beautifully maintained village, El Capistrano, Nerja, is just 45 minutes from the airport and has wonderful views of the Mediterranean and mountains.

Entre Naranjos

Murica, from £49. Average high temperature of 25C and 4 hours of daily sunshine, Murcia is a handy jumping off point for southern Spain.

40 minutes from either Murcia or Alicante airport is this 3-bedroom villa and 2-bedroom apartment on the new development of Entre Naranjos, set amidst the orange groves and a short drive from Torrevieja. Prices start from £190 for the villa and £140 per week for the apartment.

Tavira, East Algarve

The Algarve, Portugal, from £30. Average high temperature of 23C and 7 sunshine hours each day. One of Europe’s most popular destinations but still pretty warm even into November.

Sleeps 4 (plus cot) this townhouse is situated in a secluded, luxury, mainly owner-occupied, hilltop development with spectacular views across the Roman fishing town of Tavira (2km) to the sea. Prices start from £200 per week.

Villas in Pollensa

Majorca, from £38. Average high temperature of 24C and 3 hours sunshine each day.

Spain was visited by 8.3 million foreign tourists in August, the highest monthly number of foreign visitors since current records began in 1995.

Most favoured by the British, French and Germans, Spain was the third most-visited country in the world, tied with China and just behind the United States and France.

The number of visitors was 7.1% higher than August last year, according to the country’s tourism ministry. The surge in numbers is likely due to holidaymakers avoiding previously popular budget holiday destinations – Egypt and Turkey – which were hit by civil unrest this year.

Within Spain, the most popular areas for visitors were the northeastern region of Catalonia with Barcelona as the main attraction, the Balearic Islands benefitted from 2.1 million foreign visitors and the southern region of Andalusia didn’t do too badly with 1.1 million visitors also.

The ministry’s data also showed that the increase did not only occur in August either, but overall from January to August 2013, 42.3 million foreign tourists visited the country, 4.5% more than the same period last year and another record high.

It’s not difficult to see why Spain is one of the most visited countries in the world, it has wonderful coastlines, countryside, culture and not to mention the gorgeous weather. Read our guides on villa rentals in Spain for inspiration on where to visit and go to our main site to find holiday villas in Spain.

Spain is still the top holiday destination. Picture by Flickr user Olli365

It may be one of the hottest summer’s we’ve had for years, but that isn’t stopping the two million holidaymakers set to head overseas this weekend.

As the first weekend of the summer holidays for the majority in England, airports are bracing themselves for one of their busiest weekends of the year. The southeast in particular is going to be very busy with 480,000 passengers departing from Heathrow, 276,000 from Gatwick, 125,000 from Stansted and 70,000 jetting off from Luton.

Further up north 160,000 are due to depart from Manchester, 66,000 from Birmingham, 70,000 from Newcastle, 50,000 from Bristol and 30,000 from Leeds Bradford International. Sottish airports don’t fair too badly either with 50,000 leaving from Glasgow alone.

ABTA chief executive Mark Tanzer said: “This weekend sees the start of the main summer holiday getaway and it’s one of the busiest of the year.

“Millions of holidaymakers will be heading off overseas with the Mediterranean countries attracting the lion’s share of visitors.

According to ABTA, Spain remains the top holiday destination with the Balearic and Canary Islands selling especially well. Mexico and Cuba are among the top-selling long-haul holidays, although Floridaremains the number one choice for families.

An excellent location for a varied holiday full of activity or relaxation depending on your want. It has a stunning port full of luxury boats and yachts, a popular haunt for the rich and famous. There is a play area for children, a huge choice of restaurants and bars, shopping and variety of beaches to visit.

A split persona of a place; relaxed with a great cafe culture during the day, and buzzing with life and music in the evenings when the clubs open.

Catch cheap flights to Malaga Airport from the UK and either get a regular bus, hire a car or get a taxi to Puerto Banus.

Beautiful pool

How about this pretty poolside villa between Puerto Banus and Estepona, sleeps 4 with master bedroom with balcony looking over the pool and twin bedroom with single beds, an ample family bathroom and large living area with open plan living room, dining room and kitchen. Double doors lead out onto a private sun terrace which overlooks one of the pools and gardens.

Spain is now back at the top spot for the best-value destination in 2013, according to the latest Post Office Worldwide Holiday Costs Barometer.

Last year, the Barometer found that Spain was a better deal than Italy, Greece and Corfu for self catering holidays, but this year it’s gone one better and topped the overall list as a best-value destination, with prices 41% cheaper than five years ago and an increase in tourism overall despite the recession.

Holiday makers going to Australia or South Korea will be seriously out of pocket in comparison, with an average shopping basket (containing a meal for two, bottle of beer, water, glass of wine, can of Coca-Cola, cup of coffee, suncream and a packet of cigarettes) weighing in at £145.28 in Darwin and £146.93 in Seoul. Compare this to the cheap and cheerful £36.14 in Malaga and Galle, it’s no wonder Spain is a popular destination!

Brits are looking to Spain for holidays over other countries once again, according to flight comparison site Skyscanner.

Searches for Tenerife, Malaga and Alicante have all shown significant rises for Easter this year as Brits take advantage of the potential 11 day holiday over the Royal Wedding period.

Skyscanner says Tenerife is now the second most searched destination on the site, jumping up 21 places from this time last year. City breaks have suffered; although Amsterdam and Barcelona are still in the top ten, they’ve both dropped four places compared to last Easter.

Skyscanner chief executive officer Gareth Williams said: “Malaga and Alicante remain immensely popular with the British, but it also looks as though people are taking advantage of the extra Royal Wedding holiday and going a little further afield this Easter with Tenerife, New York and Istanbul all up considerably compared to last year.

“This has come at the expense of city break destinations which have all dropped significantly this Easter. The fact that London doesn’t even appear in this year’s top ten certainly seems to suggest that many Brits are trying to escape the hype around the Royal Wedding ”.

Astonishingly, nine out of every ten Brits holidaying in Spain this year will have got there on a no-frills airline like easyjet or Ryanair. The percentage for most other European destinations isn’t far behind. And with the budget airlines’ charge for checking in a suitcase ever rising, an increasing number of holidaymakers are taking just what will fit into a cabin bag with maximum dimensions of 55x40x20cm. Ryanair also imposes a 10kg weight limit whereas easyJet allows any weight ‘within reason’.

Ryanair has been especially tough on slightly oversize bags, sometimes creating lengthy departure gate queues as passengers with a cabin bag bulging beyond the max argue with staff then desperately extract enough to slim the bag.

If no-one has yet coined the phrase cabin bag anxiety, it’s time they did. But what the extortionate bag check-in charges do mean is that it’s worth investing in a cabin bag that makes the most of what you’re allowed. Luggage specialist Antler has come up a bag specifically designed for that purpose. It claims the Duolite is the lightest, most durable case it has ever produced. Combining a hybrid ABS and nylon material with a frameless construction, the Duolite is super lightweight, with the cabin case weighing in at just 2.1kg. With dimensions of 55x35x20, it meets most airlines’ cabin bag size limits (but always check before flying).

A weight of 2.1kg probably doesn’t mean much to most people, but we’ve been trying one out and the first thing everyone says is, “Isn’t it light?” The second is that it nevertheless feels well made and strong in a high-tech sort of way, and the third is that it wheels along very easily. So although it has a recommended retail price of £89 (the lowest discounted price we saw online was £84), that could be a worthwhile investment. Our only reservation is that its width of 35cm is actually 5cm, or a couple of inches, less than most airlines allow, so you aren’t quite maximising the allowance. Having said that, the structure of the case intrudes very little into the internal space, which can also be expanded slightly by undoing a zip-fastened gusset extension to give a depth of 23cm if the airline isn’t being too strict. The bag has one zipped external pocket, and comes complete with a TSA padlock (which can be opened by security staff without having to break into the case).

For those trips where a cabin bag just isn’t enough, Antler does two matching suitcases of similar construction. The medium case (67x44x30/33cm) weighs 2.5kg, with a rrp of £105 and the large (74x49x33/36cm) weighs 2.9kg with a rrp of £109. With excess baggage charges of up to £40 per kilo, the two kilos or so saved compared with a typical case could almost pay for these cases, which all come with a 10-year warranty. Further details and stockists at www.antler.co.uk

More than two million holidaymakers are set to travel this Easter weekend.

Spain is the favourite country for people going abroad, with the Canary Islands – and Tenerife in particular – the most popular, according to ABTA.

Egypt has continued with its recent popularity and Tunisia and Turkey have also sold well.

Snow sports attract enthusiasts to Geneva to access the Alpine resorts of Switzerland, France and Italy.

Paris, Amsterdam, Dublin, Milan and New York are the top five city break destinations.

People are travelling to the Channel Islands and cottages in Cornwall, East Anglia and the North of England if they are staying in the UK.

ABTA chairman John McEwan said: “Easter is the traditional curtain raiser to the summer and I am delighted to see that hundreds of thousands of our customers are taking the opportunity to take a well earned break both here in the UK and overseas.”